Peacekeeper Strategy
Peacekeepers The Peacekeepers show up claiming to attack anybody whose ships are outside their owner's influence (i.e., in another's territory or a "no-man's land" area). The event is critisized as being broken, unbalancing, unfair, stupid, and otherwise unliked. This page aims to help players out who think their game has become hopeless due to the Peacekeeper Event. Their Arrival The Peacekeeper ships magically populate the galaxy next to all "military" spacecraft and starbases that are in an area owned by somebody else. This appears to include any vessel/starbase that has an attack or defense score, and I believe even planets that are in somebody else's space and have military defense. The ships appear to be tailored to the galaxy in which they appear. In my situation, the strongest offense was missiles by a huge margin, with lasers being a distant second. Nobody had mass drivers. The PK ships have approximately 400 defense to missiles and 60 defense to lasers. None to mass drivers. The strongest defense in my game was against lasers, and the second-strongest was against mass drivers (weird AI went nuts with mass driver defenses). So the PK ships have an attack of about 200 in missile, and nothing else. Dirty Liars The Peacekeepers claim to attack only military ships that wander into others' territory (area of influence). However, as you will see, they behave completely differently. It is not known whether this is a bug or intended behaviour. Here's what seems to be happening (as of TA 2.04): #When the Mega Event is triggered, a new minor race, The Peacekeepers, is created. The Peacekeepers immediately determine players (Human or AI) that have their military outside their own territory and declare WAR on them. Peacekeeper ships will appear next to intervening military vessels. #*This means, if you had all your military within your zone of influence at the time of their appearance - you're extremely lucky. You're even more lucky if you had enemy planets within your zone influence - see next paragraph. #Hence, once declared war on a Human or AI player, they will attack anything that player owns, regardless or where it is (own or enemy territory) what it is, and if it has any weapons/defences. Everything gets attacked: military ships, starbases, constructors, ships in orbit and even the mini-freighters on the trade routes. #*This means any colony within enemy zone of influence is automatically stripped of all defences and lays open for invasion (provided it had military protection at the time Peacekeepers appeared). Use this to extend your empire (if you are not friends with Peacekeepers - really fast transports may be the answer). #Even though it's a war, Peacekeepers do not actively seek for targets - they tend to stay in their initial spawn areas, attacking only when potential target comes within 7 (as per GalCiv2 forums) squares. This effectively leaves groups of Peacekeeper fleets 'guarding' certain areas of the map (which you may use). #*They may pursue their target, however, providing you with a way of luring them into areas you want 'patrolled'. #Since Peacekeepers do not have any colonies, they are not treated as 'typical' minor race, and you cannot initiate conversations with them. However, precisely because of lack of colonies, Peacekeepers will contact you from time to time asking for help in the war they're "losing" (with the biggest fleet around!). This is the only time you can converse with them - use the opportunity! Please see below on how you could utilize Peacekeepers to your advantage. Strategies Effective and bloodless strategy One effective strategy against the Peacekeepers involves allying with them. When the Peacekeepers contact you, normally to ask for help against another civilization, offer them a alliance and give them a colony. Once they have a colony, not only will you be able to contact them through that colony's "speak to" if you wish to, they will start having to pay upkeep for their ships. Their forces will rapidly shrink and disappear. In the meantime, you can start building transports to take over a empty universe. Other strategies These are mostly copied from my forum post at http://forums.galciv2.com/?aid=144184. In my game the Peacekeepers brutalized my military but turned out to be very useful in my overall conquest strategy. Hopefully this advice can help others to use the Peacekeeper event to their advantage instead of feeling the need to quit the game. * Don't engage the peacekeepers until you have significantly surpassed the level of tech that you had when they appeared! If you didn't figure this out on your own, though, I can't really help you. * Use them for defense! You can't defend worlds they patrol anyway, so if a transport slips in you have no way to stop it. Just rely on their "protection" to keep your worlds safe. * Use them for invasion! Build fast transports (say 10+ pc/turn) to rush through their patrol and take the worlds they're near. You can have some fun wars when the enemy can't defend himself. * Don't overestimate them! If you assume they're everywhere and all-powerful, you may rely on their "protection" in areas they don't patrol. They seem to stick around their origin location, so if you have a planet in a contested area and don't see any peacekeepers within 10 spaces, do NOT assume you can leave it undefended! * MUST MUST MUST get the sensor achievement (eyes of the universe?) This single achievement is probably the main reason I'm doing so well in my game. I can keep tabs on those bastards from a very safe distance! In a normal game, this achievement is pretty cool, but when the peacekeepers hit it is a must have! * Don't bother with military buildup if the map has significant peacekeeper presence (unless you've surpassed their power). Just build small assault fleets and a few transports, otherwise you're spending money on maintaining a fleet that's largely unnecessary. The peacekeepers will do a good job of keeping all fleets at a minimum, so why try to be the military superpower at this stage? * Be alert! Autopiloted ships don't avoid peacekeepers any better than normal enemies. I have been doing a lot of going "the scenic route" with my ships to be sure they don't hit the peacekeepers. It's surely overkill, but after a few 3-billion-troop transport losses, I'm happy to lose a turn or two being cautious. * Lead them to enemies, not starbases! I don't know all their rules, but the peacekeepers will sometimes chase down a rogue ship in their realm and then go for another nearby ship that previously was outside their patrol area. It can be very useful for taking a world that has defenses - throw some fodder near the world, watch the peacekeepers clean it up for you. But it can be devastating as well. I was trying to run through a patrolled area, so I went toward my very decked-out military resource starbase which so far had been safe. When the peacekeepers decided to give chase, they apparently noticed this starbase for the first time.... Bye bye bonuses. * Abuse the AI if you really hate this event. The AI can't deal with the Peacekeepers effectively - they continue to build military vessels on planets that are patrolled, and just end up losing lots of production potential. Use this to your advantage! * Cash in! The Peacekeepers will destroy your military, so just let it be and enjoy the huge cash inflow from having halved your military expenses. I went from a 2000BC/turn military to about 800BC/turn. The extra cash comes in handy! * Focus on research until you are ready to launch a counter-assault. My research spending has more than quadrupled since the Peacekeepers entered the game. I am blowing through the tech tree on my way to missile defenses and mass driver weapons. Since the Peacekeepers don't invade and do a good job protecting my borders, I don't have to take the fight to them until I'm ready. I once played a game with the super isolationist and the peacekeepers kept peace in a 3 parsec radius in my territory cause they could not catch up to me. While all the other race (except the Yor) were crippeled by them I just built more ships and when I was ready lauched a counter-assault. I required some work but my military was left barely scrached. If you use this strategy be careful because they will attack ships you accidently leave defending a planet. Category:Strategy